And what brands can learn from their preferences

From an A-list celebrity tagging his new designer duds on Instagram to your next-door neighbor raving about her favorite new meal-delivery service on Facebook, most everyone uses social media to talk about brands. But how different generations of people create, consume and share this type of user-generated content varies widely. To help marketers better understand the divide, earned content platform Olapic conducted a survey to find out how consumers of different ages—especially millennials and baby boomers—view UGC.

While their responses varied, one thing was widely agreed upon: "76 percent of consumers believe the content that average people share is more honest than advertising from brands," said Olapic co-founder Pau Sabria. "That should serve as a wake-up call for brands to start exploring the use of authentic content in ads and marketing to build trust and create a more meaningful dialogue with their customers."

Carlos Monteiro

This story first appeared in the January 2, 2017 issue of Adweek magazine.